


bubble gum lollipops

by tostitos



Category: Monsta X (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Facebook, Humor, M/M, Rating May Change, Romance, Strangers to Lovers, Texting, hyungwon is sassy and likes to curse, kihyun is dumb and stressed, lowkey catfishing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-14
Updated: 2018-02-02
Packaged: 2019-03-04 18:07:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 10,733
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13370253
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tostitos/pseuds/tostitos
Summary: Yoo Kihyun is an average university student. He's not the best at studying, he doesn't have the best diet, and he doesn't make the best decisions.Exhibit A: Offering to attend a film festival on campus with a cute stranger.Exhibit B: Making that offer through his best friend's Facebook account.Exhibit C: Deciding it doesn't matter that cute stranger, Chae Hyungwon, thinks his name is Minhyuk.Exhibit D: Proceeding to kind of, sort of, maybe, definitely fall for him.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> this is supposed to be a birthday fic for hyungwon and yet it's completely in kihyun's pov /shrug
> 
> i really adore this story and i hope you do too. there's no way i'm finishing this tomorrow so i'm posting it in two parts and hopefully i'll be done by the end of the week.

There comes a point when you are studying for a test worth fifteen percent of your grade where you realize that no matter how many times you review your notes and have your best friend quiz you on the material, you'll still be one hundred and twenty percent _fucked_. Astrophysics major Yoo Kihyun reaches that point on a Wednesday night at nine twenty-five, thirty six hours and thirty-five minutes before his electricity and magnetism class, after reviewing motional emf equations and Faraday’s law for the trillionth time and still getting six out of ten practice problems wrong. He’s on the last stick of his third pack of gum - he’s a stress chewer - his phone sits dead beside his empty can of Arizona iced green tea, and Minhyuk doesn’t look like he’s faring too well on the preliminary sketches for his next advanced painting project either.

Flattening his gum and sticking it to the roof of his mouth, Kihyun flips his textbook closed and sinks down in his cushy private library study room chair until he can rest his head on the top.

Minhyuk glances up from his sketchbook and reaches over the table to open his textbook again, graphite staining the outside of his littlest finger. “You can’t give up, Ki, come on.”

Kihyun closes his eyes and sighs through his nose. “I’m not giving up. I’m just taking a break.” He’s giving up. There’s no point; if he doesn’t understand now, there’s a very small chance he’s going to understand Friday morning.

“You get five minutes.”

Frowning, Kihyun opens his eyes and narrows them at his best friend and his uncharacteristic motivation. “That’s not a break.”

“Okay, six.”

Kihyun rolls his eyes. “Thanks.”

Grabbing his empty pack of gum, Kihyun spits out his last piece into the paper box, the flavor lost and the pink mass difficult to chew. “I’m going to the vending machine. You want anything?”

Minhyuk taps the end of his F pencil against his sketchbook. “Water and some peanut m&ms?”

Nodding, Kihyun pushes out from the table. He pats his pockets to make sure he has his student card. “Can I borrow your phone? I want to check if my TA got back to me about office hours.”

“This is why you should always bring your charger,” Minhyuk says, pushing his phone over to Kihyun who takes it with a grin.

The library isn’t so packed during the week as it on the weekends so Kihyun decides to wait for the elevator. Minhyuk doesn’t care about his privacy, leaving his phone without a pass code or fingerprint recognition, and Kihyun easily opens up the internet browser and logs into his university email as he waits for the elevator to come up from the second floor.

His email is more spam from the organizations he’s signed up for and the university advertising events than anything important. Unfortunately, there’s no response email from his TA yet but that’s fine, it’s not like he wanted to pass his class or anything. He’s already talked to his mom about the possibility of dropping out of college and joining a clown school. She gave him the stink eye but didn’t verbally express her opposition to the idea so he’s assumed he’s not in danger of being disowned if his life comes to that.

When the elevator doors open, he steps in and presses the button for the first floor. As soon as the doors open again on the ground floor, Minhyuk’s phone pings in his hand. Out of reflex, Kihyun glances down at it and sees that something has been posted in the Class of 2019 group on facebook.

He deleted facebook a couple months ago, but even when he used it, he didn’t care about anything his fellow juniors posted in the group meant for their graduating class. Still, he taps the notification as he moves through the halls of the library to the vending machine.

Facebook’s blue, white, and grey interface loads onto the new post.

 

**Chae Hyungwon**

Got an extra ticket to the indie film festival Friday night and looking for someone to eat cheese and crackers and shit-talk with because I have to go for a class and am dreading it. If you just want the ticket, that’s cool too. Orig $20, selling for 19.99.

_1 comment_

**Chae Hyungwon** I’m kidding, it’s $10

 

Kihyun's lips quirk up at the post. This guy is probably a film student. He always feels bad for the arts and humanities majors who are forced to go to events for a grade.

A pair of students is standing at the snack machine so he heads for the drink one first once he finds the vending machines. He takes out his student ID and taps it against the card reader before keying in the number for a bottle of water. As the bottle is slowly pushed out of the line, he opens Hyungwon’s profile, curious about the kind of guy he is.

And he’s...beautiful. Unfairly so.

His profile is friends only, so there isn’t much to see except his hometown and a few randomly public statuses and photos. But the very first picture is his recently updated profile shot. It’s a candid shot of him taken by someone else. He’s leaning over a table with his chin in his palm and lightly curled mocha brown hair falling artfully into his eyes as he stares out a tall window.

Kihyun’s heart skips a little bit.

He’s not interested in the film festival at all but he would definitely pay the ten dollars and go just to chill with a cute guy for a few hours. Plus, this Chae Hyungwon isn’t interested in going either.

Remembering where he is, Kihyun grabs the water bottle and quickly buys a soda for himself. He tucks them under his arm and glances at the snack machine that’s now free. He quickly buys Minhyuk’s m&ms and another packet of gum and a tiny bag of sour cream and onion chips for himself.

He lets the snacks sit at the bottom of the vending machine as he scrolls through the rest of Chae Hyungwon’s visible profile. Biting his lips, he scrolls back to the top and hovers over the message link.

 

**Lee Minhyuk**

About your post on the film festival...

 

He remembers that this is Minhyuk’s account only after he presses send but it’s probably fine. Knowing his record of pursuing guys, there’s an eighty-five percent chance that this guy is straight and a fifty-two percent chance that he’s also a douchebag underneath the sarcastic charm. And it’s only for one night. He’s not catfishing if he’s not leading the guy on for an extended period of time.

 

**Chae Hyungwon**

Oh wow. I didn’t think anyone would actually go for it.

Not five minutes after I posted anyway.

 

**Lee Minhyuk**

It was a very persuasive post

You had me at cheese and crackers

But I guess I could put up with your riveting commentary too

 

**Chae Hyungwon**

Amazing

Ok so I’m kinda busy right now so do you mind if we finish talking about this later?

 

**Lee Minhyuk**

Actually

Do you use twitter or whatsapp or we could even exchange numbers?

I don’t use fb on my phone and it’s a hassle to always switch to my computer

 

**Chae Hyungwon**

Oh yeah sure

I guess numbers would be easier?? I’ll text you

Mine’s xxx-xxx-2081

 

**Lee Minhyuk**

Thanks.

xxx-xxx-5375

 

“Are you using the machine?”

Snapping his head up, Kihyun looks at the girl standing behind him. “Oh, sorry.” Pocketing the phone, Kihyun bends down to grab the snacks. He slips the packet of gum into his pocket and shifts the two drink bottles around until he has a comfortable grasp on everything.

Minhyuk is aggressively moving an eraser across his sketchbook when Kihyun returns to their study room on the fourth floor and pushes the door open with an elbow.

“Making good progress, I see,” he comments as he drops Minhyuk’s water and candy on his side of the table.

He sits his lemon-lime soda on the far side of his textbook and tosses his chips onto the open pages of it. Slipping Minhyuk’s phone from his pocket, he quickly unlocks it and finds the facebook message to jot down Hyungwon’s number at the bottom of his notes. After he double checks to make sure all of the numbers are the same, he deletes the message and hopes Hyungwon doesn’t send one back.

  ♡

**Hyungwon**

hey, this is Hyungwon.

Is this Lee Minhyuk?

 

**Lee Minhyuk (film tix)**

yeah, hey

 

**Hyungwon**

so you’re sure you want to go?

 

**Lee Minhyuk (film tix)**

I’m without a doubt gonna fail a test that morning so

yeah

what better way to spend my night than

eating unsatisfactory finger foods and ripping apart amateur directors with a stranger to make myself feel better

 

**Hyungwon**

talk about a self fulfilling prophecy in the making

but I don’t know your life so good luck

 

**Lee Minhyuk (film tix)**

lol thanks

 

**Hyungwon**

so did you want to pick up the ticket beforehand or do you just want to meet up outside the festival?

it starts at 7 in mbb hall

I don’t mind either way

 

**Lee Minhyuk (film tix)**

i can meet you there

 

**Hyungwon**

sounds good

 

**Lee Minhyuk (film tix)**

you mind if I ask why you have two tickets for an event you don’t wanna go to?

 

**Hyungwon**

i only have shit people around me

 

**Lee Minhyuk (film tix)**

valid

i guess i’ll see you friday then?

 

**Hyungwon**

it’s just now hitting me how awkward this is going to be

whatever fuck it lol

see you friday

 ♡

Kihyun tears a long strip of spearmint gum from the pack and quickly peels back its shiny paper cover to slip the strip onto his tongue. It’s only ten forty-three in the morning and he’s already on his fifth stick of gum since waking up at nine. With his test in seventeen minutes and the film festival in about eight hours, he’ll probably come close to beating his personal record of seven and half packs of gum in a twenty four hour period.

As he skips up every other step of one of the many sets of stairs of Starship Hall, he feels his nerves fritz as he gets closer and closer to the classroom where his physics test will be held. He may have already come to terms with failing, but that didn’t mean there wasn’t a minuscule, bacteria-sized part of him that was hoping — praying — that he’ll pull through with a low, barely passing grade.

Clown school? Not exactly something he wants to commit to.

A few of his classmates are loitering around outside room 2301 when he arrives, the class that uses that room from ten to eleven still in progress. He finds an open space against the wall, leans up against it, and tries not to shove a second stick of gum into his mouth as he swings his bookbag around to dig out his flashcard keychain.

He flips through them as he waits for the current class to end, reviewing laws and equations one last time. Some concepts make more sense than they did during his and Minhyuk’s work session, but many of the letters on his flashcards still transform into wingdings whenever he reads them, like those optical illusion cards that change pictures depending on how you tilt them.

He’s trying to review Ampère's circuital law when his phone buzzes in the side pocket of his bookbag. Sliding the key ring over his finger, Kihyun takes out the mobile device and glances at the screen.

His eyes widen at the message.

 

**Hyungwon**

don’t fuck up on your test

 

Once he gets past the surprise of Hyungwon messaging him casually about something other than the festival later, he chuckles. The doors to his classroom open then too, and students begin to stream out.

 

**Hyungwon**

unless you already took it and in that case

i hope you didn’t fuck up on your test

 

**Lee Minhyuk (film tix)**

can’t really tell if this is supposed to be encouraging or not

 

**Hyungwon**

tonight will be so much better if you’re not crying in my lap about how much you suck shit

so

interpret it however you want 

 

**Lee Minhyuk (film tix)**

then thanks…i guess

I’m going in right now

 

**Hyungwon**

okay

don’t ruin my night Minhyuk

I’ve been looking forward to this

 

Kihyun throws his bookbag down beside a chair in the far center left of the classroom with red staining the tips of his ears. If it wasn’t enough for Hyungwon to remember his test and wish him good luck (albeit in a very standoffish fashion), the gorgeous boy then had to say he’s been anticipating the film festival. The same film festival he said he was dreading.

It’s not too much of a stretch to think Hyungwon is looking forward to meeting him, is it?

Taking his gum, Kihyun unravels another piece and pops it into his mouth. He’s definitely going to beat his record.

“Hey, Kihyun,” Hyunwoo greets as he slips into the chair beside Kihyun, hair a little damp because he takes a nine forty-five swim class that lasts until ten thirty-five on the north side of campus. He’s an ordinary physics major but he and Kihyun have shared a few classes together over the years. “Ready for the test?”

Smacking on his gum, Kihyun stares down the older man who he considers to be a decent acquaintance. He doesn’t know about Kihyun’s particular stress relief methods — most people assume he just really likes to chew gum which is both true and not — so Kihyun feigns confidence and shrugs. “There’s no one more ready than me.”

There’s no one more ready to fail than him but Kihyun doesn’t believe lying by omission is that big of a deal. And he kind of promised Hyungwon that he wouldn’t doom himself to failure right from the start.

So, he’s as ready as he’ll ever be which is not ready at all.

But he wants to feel decent enough about his potential grade for if — when? — Hyungwon asks about it later. Maybe Hyungwon will smile at him and praise him for still trying his best despite not knowing the material.

Kihyun’s jaw begins to hurt as he chews more furiously.

He shouldn’t be thinking about things like that. 

  ♡

“I’m going out so you’re on your own for dinner,” Kihyun says as he walks through the living room of his apartment-style upperclassman dorm. His roommate, Hoseok, is lounging on their couch in his usual combo of fitted muscle tee and sweatpants, his macbook pro seated on his chest as he scrolls through something.

The nutritional science and music double major hums out a noise to show he heard that.

The island in their small kitchen is clean save for the stack of supplements Hoseok adds to his smoothies and the plastic dollar store basket Kihyun keeps his inventory of gum in. Normally, he would keep his stash secret, but unlike Kihyun’s previous roommates, Hoseok knows not to take things that aren’t his.

Poking through the many flavors he has, Kihyun eventually plucks out blueberry punch.

“A cappella practice?”

Kihyun shakes his head even though Hoseok hasn’t turned away from his laptop. “Going to some film fest thing in MBB with a friend.”

Hoseok hums again. “Tell Minhyuk I said ‘hi’.”

Kihyun frowns at the assumption because he has more friends than just Minhyuk, but doesn’t bother telling Hoseok he’s wrong. “Yeah, sure.” Peeling off the plastic wrapper around the packet of gum, Kihyun tosses it in the trash before putting the pack in his pocket with his phone and face mask. “I’ll be back in a couple hours. Please have on pants when I get home.”

“No promises,” Hoseok says, telling Kihyun that he has a bottle of wine he’s been meaning to crack open.

Kihyun leaves their dorm with a laugh that disappears as soon as he’s in the hallway and realization that he’s really doing this punches him straight in his mouth.

He forces himself not to put a piece of gum into his mouth, having finished pack #4 just thirty minutes ago when he was changing into something casual but attractive - a long sleeved black v-neck that shows just enough collarbone tucked into a pair of solid light blue jeans. With a _real watch_.

(Because his How To Be Gay starter pack may have come without a working gaydar, but that doesn’t mean he shouldn’t put a little effort in just in case).

MBB Hall is a relatively small building dedicated to the fine and graphic arts, housing a small room for events or exhibitions primarily held by those departments but also sometimes used for other events. To Kihyun’s inartistic eyes, the hall looks like a mausoleum and it gives him the creeps, but this will probably be the last time he even breathes in its direction.

He climbs the too-wide stairs up from the street, trailing behind a boy with way too many anime buttons pinned to his university tote bag and ignoring how his hands twitch for a piece of gum.

Chae Hyungwon, as it turns out, is the cosmos’ greatest masterpiece. Standing outside the tall, grand doors of MBB Hall, he looks like a work of art himself.

He’s a lot taller than Kihyun expected, with slim legs that look like they go on for days. Kihyun had thought about it a couple times over the past two days because he’s cheesy, but he really wonders if the other boy is a model. No one should look so effortlessly amazing leaning up against the outside of a possible mausoleum and fiddling with a slip of paper as he stares out into space.

Kihyun takes his face mask out of his pocket and slips it on as he finishes climbing the last few steps. He walks straight up to Hyungwon and clears his throat.

Hyungwon glances at him with wide, light grey eyes that Kihyun prays are color contacts because it would be really _really_ unfair if that’s his natural eye color.

“Chae Hyungwon?”

The lollipop stick poking out of pink, pillowy lips shifts from one side of Hyungwon’s mouth to the other as he tilts his head and gives Kihyun a once over.

“Lee Minhyuk?” His voice, although muffled around the candy, is a deep tenor that reminds Kihyun of hot chamomile tea and soft sheets.

“He-“ Kihyun clears his throat again when his voice comes out strangled. “Hey.”

Hyungwon blinks once, glances down at the tickets in his hand, and then blesses Kihyun with a small smile. “Welcome to hell,” he says, passing over one of the tickets.

Kihyun’s pretty sure he’s in heaven right now and talking to a literal angel, but he takes the ticket with a laugh. “Thanks for the invite.” Pinching the ticket between his fingers, he takes out his wallet in order to hand Hyungwon the ten dollars for the ticket.

Slipping the money into the front chest pocket of his oversized denim shirt, Hyungwon pops his lollipop out of his mouth. “Guess we should go in before all the snacks are gone. I did advertise the finest,” he says as he turns to enter the building, absentmindedly rubbing the red, hard candy over his lips.

Kihyun sighs dazedly at the sight and follows after the other boy.

He can feel a solid crush forming already and that is the opposite of good.

  ♡

“So, uh, how was your test?” Hyungwon asks as he piles up chocolate chip cookies on a tiny, square napkin. “And sorry if my text this morning was too familiar. I thought I should try to make things more comfortable before, well, now, but I realized later that I might’ve overdone it.”

Kihyun shakes his head. “No, it was cool. I appreciated it actually. Kind of took the edge off,” he says, not exactly lying. He picks up a tiny plastic cup of cola and then his own napkin full of cookies. There are no cheese and crackers, there isn’t even any free pizza - which is honestly blasphemy - but he can’t complain when Hyungwon exhales a soft sigh that Kihyun unashamedly convinces himself is relief.

As they leave the long table holding the meager snack selection to find seats three rows from the very back, Kihyun continues.

“Still failed it, but I promise I’ll save my tears for later.”

Hyungwon crosses his legs at the thigh, wonderful pale skin about two shades lighter than his face slightly bulging through the wide, gratuitous rips in the tight, black jeans. “Much appreciated. Tears are the one thing I can’t handle.” He gently sits down his leaning tower of cookies on the empty seat to his right before turning to face Kihyun, angling his body so that he’s putting all of his weight on his left hip. He folds one arm over the back of his portable chair and lifts the other to twirl his lollipop stick.

Kihyun sucks his bottom lip into his mouth and chew on it nervously, blinking twice to clear out the interested leer he could feel his lids drooping in to. He is, in fact, capable of hanging out with a very cute, very very very hot boy without making his thirst completely obvious.

But because his life is set to expert difficulty, it’s only natural that Hyungwon then leisurely drags his candy out of his mouth and presses the sticky, red ball of sugar against the seam of his lips as he puts all of his attention on Kihyun.

“So what was the test in?” he asks, pursed lips still squished against the lollipop.

Kihyun slips his hand into his pocket, feeling his rectangular pack of gum. He clears his throat and pretends to be interested in looking around the small room. “Physics. I’m an astronomy major.”

“Oh?” Hyungwon raises an eyebrow and finally, thankfully, (a little unfortunately), curls his tongue around the sugary mound and pulls the lollipop back into his mouth, a bump immediately appearing in his left cheek. “That’s cool. You don’t look the space nerd type.”

With a strange twitch of his fingers, Kihyun finally cracks and gives into his addiction. He takes out two sticks of gum and pulls down his face mask over his chin, shoving them in his mouth. “And what’s the space nerd type look like?”

He’s not offended; on some level, he gets it. He _does_ have on a $150 watch.

Hyungwon sucks loudly on his candy as his pretty eyes casually take a tour across Kihyun’s hunched and awkward geography. “Not like this.”

It’s a complete non-answer (and one that can be given any kind of meaning). He really didn’t plan on flirting, remembering his history with chasing after straight dudes, but some stupid burst of stupidity works a smirk over Kihyun’s face. “Okay, but not like what?” he pushes, matching Hyungwon’s unwavering stare.

Hyungwon laughs a little bit, just a short, surprised chuckle. “Let it go, Minhyuk. I’m trying to not make you uncomfortable before the movies are even shown.”

“Try me.”

Shaking his head, Hyungwon pinches his finger around the stick of his candy and bites down on the sugary mass. “Fine,” he says as he munches on his now broken lollipop. “You’re cute.”

Cute as in adorable or cute as in ‘I would smash’, Kihyun wants to ask but he occupies himself with blowing a huge, blue bubble to prevent himself from ruining the good mood between them.

Hyungwon takes the clean stick out of his mouth and reaches behind himself to put it on his plate. “You look a little different than I imagined since your last couple of profile pics have been of your dog in cheesy costumes.”

Holy shit. Kihyun didn’t even think about Hyungwon going through Minhyuk’s facebook and he makes a mental note to kiss his best friend for: one, actually making his profile friend’s only and, two, being obsessed with his dog.

“They’re not cheesy; they’re precious,” he says, playing up the role of someone who is crazy about their pet because it seems like something Hyungwon would expect.

Hyungwon raises the hand not draped over his chair in surrender before slipping it into his back pocket and pulling out another lollipop.

Kihyun watches him unwrap it. “Aren’t you going to eat your cookies?”

“Aren’t you going to eat yours?” Hyungwon returns, locking them in a stalemate. He glances up at Kihyun under his thick lashes as he slowly curls his tongue around the green bulb of sugar and sucks the candy into his mouth.

It’s meant to be teasing, a playful dare for Kihyun to make another comment, but all it does is make warmth spread throughout the weak astronomy major.

“I’d like to welcome you all to the 2018 Independent Film Festival!”

Hyungwon turns away from Kihyun to look at the woman MCing the event and Kihyun immediately reaches for the cola he left by his feet. Sticking his gum to the rim of the cup, he takes a long sip and ignores how the carbonation stings as it goes down.

“We have a lot of great short films tonight so I hope you enjoy!”

“I’m already suffering,” Hyungwon mumbles under his breath.

Kihyun nods, agreeing for a different reason. “Same.”

  ♡ 

“I know I’ve said this for almost everything we’ve seen but I’m serious this time. What the fuck am I looking at?”

Kihyun breaks off a soft chunk of one of his cookies as he watches colorful, animated amalgamations of human and animalistic features on Ghibli-like monsters gradually go from cute and innocent to slimy and uncomfortable. “I don’t know, I kind of like it,” he whispers back as an anaconda with the lower body of chubby legs wrapped in a red plaid uniform skirt swallows a freckled boy with three eyes and no arms in one bite.

Hyungwon glances at him, not one bit of amusement in his eyes. “Get out.”

“It’s better than the one that was just a bootleg Tickle-Me-Elmo vibrating on street corners.”

“That had some interesting angle choices.”

Kihyun snorts as he nibbles on his cookie. “Don’t pull that on me, asshole. It was a completely irredeemable piece of shit and you know it. At least this one is so weird that it’s kind of cool.”

“Good _bye_ , Minhyuk. I’m not listening to you defend this.” Hyungwon, long finished with his second lollipop, breaks one of his own cookies down the middle and fits the half into his mouth.

“But I have this theory that—”

With a long-suffering ‘oh my god’, Hyungwon pinches the corner of the mask still sitting at Kihyun’s chin and pulls it up over his mouth as if that will mute him.

“It’s shit, you’re shit, this entire festival is shit,” Hyungwon mumbles with his mouth full.

The room isn’t silent, filled with light chatter, but Kihyun’s burst of laughter sounds above it all. A few people turn around to look and he quickly tries to collect himself with a hand to muffle his laughter. Hyungwon begins to laugh too, restrained yet genuine, and they don’t stop until the animated film finishes with a sudden cut to black.

Still giggling just a bit, Hyungwon slaps Kihyun’s thigh familiarly. Kihyun jolts at the hit but only looks at Hyungwon with a wide grin and stars in his eyes.

He was high-key ready for this night to be awful — for Hyungwon to be stuck-up and overconfident in his own skills as a film student, for his sharp tongue to feel like the crack of a whip rather than a playful pinch, for them to not get on at all. But Hyungwon is a homey sort of easygoing, the kind of person that makes you feel like you’ve known them forever. He’s mouthy, has something to say about everything, but listening to him ramble about this and that doesn’t tire Kihyun out like Minhyuk’s rants do. He’s straightforward and confident and pretty and funny...

Two days ago Kihyun thought he’d be okay with this being a one night thing. Now, nothing is more disappointing than the possibility of saying goodbye to Hyungwon after the festival and that being the end of what can be a great friendship (never mind his problematic budding crush).

Pulling out his phone, Hyungwon checks the time and groans. “It’s been an hour and a half and we still have another category left,” he complains, squeezing his eyes shut and sinking down in his chair. He pops one back open and sets it on Kihyun. “You wanna go and get a burger?”

Movies and dinner sounds a lot like a date.

Kihyun coughs. “Now?”

Blinking open his other eye, Hyungwon frowns. “Uh, yeah? I'm not sitting through this garbage for another hour.”

Kihyun unwraps his third piece of gum since the start of the festival. "Oh. Okay, yeah, let's go."

  ♡

Hoseok, as expected, doesn’t have on pants when Kihyun gets home close to ten, the older man still stretched out on the couch but now on his stomach and in short, baby blue boxers. There’s a tall bottle sitting on the floor next to a fat glass with red wine pooling inside.

Hoseok looks up from his laptop, a jazzy instrumental playing through its speakers. “Oh, hey, welcome back.”

Kihyun swipes the glass of pinot noir and takes a sip as he plops down onto one of their bean bag chairs. “Dude, I’m _fucked_.”

“Um,” Hoseok glances over at him and then down at where his glass once sat, “I’m sorry to hear that?”

“I don’t believe in soulmates so I don’t wanna say that he’s my soulmate but I’m pretty sure he’s my soulmate.”

“Minhyuk?”

Kihyun gags. “Where is the air freshener? I need to get that out of the atmosphere.” He stands and fans the air as he goes to open a window.

Hoseok snorts and pauses his latest composition. “Okay, then who are you talking about?”

Taking another swig of wine, Kihyun savors the taste before dropping the glass by Hoseok’s side. He returns to his bean bag chair. Instead of sitting in it, he drops to the floor and buries his face in its softness.

He tells his roommate about Hyungwon and the film festival and ditching early to get burgers. He tells him about how they shared a large fry and how cute Hyungwon’s scandalized expression was when Kihyun revealed that he’s never tried dipping french fries in mayo. He tells him about how easy it was to just fall into conversation with the other boy and effortlessly leave the festival behind to get to know each other.

“And when we left Burger Burger he said ‘we should hang out again some time, Minhyuk’ and I’m sure Gay Jesus is having the time of his life laughing at me.” He sighs.

He hears Hoseok shifting around. “Why did he call you Minhyuk?”

“Because I’m an idiot and didn’t tell him the truth when I had the chance,” Kihyun groans, wishing the bean bag chair will suck him in and swallow him.

“Just tell him now.” The clink of the wine bottle hitting glass chimes as Hoseok refills.

Rolling onto his back, Kihyun regards his roommate with knitted brows and a frown. “It’s not that easy.”

Hoseok raises an eyebrow as he raises his glass to his lips. “Yeah,” he takes a generous sip, “it is.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ahhh this is out a lot later than i said. i got sick immediately after i posted the first half and had zero desire to work on it
> 
> i hope you enjoy the second half to this cheesy love story. it was a joy to write :)

**Hyungwon**

are you awake and/or free rn

and by rn i mean you don’t have class in the next hour

 

**Minhyuk**

uh yeah????

 

**Hyungwon**

meet me at the sistar hall dining hall in 20

we’re getting breakfast

 

**Minhyuk**

what if i don’t want breakfast

 

**Hyungwon**

i don’t give a fuck

we’re getting breakfast

 

**Minhyuk**

and who says i even want to talk to you after friday

 

**Hyungwon**

i

don’t

give

a

fuck

we

are

get

ting

break

fast

 

**Minhyuk**

:T

 

**Minhyuk**

where are you? i just walked in

 

**Hyungwon**

shit sorry

i ran into someone on the way

find a table i’ll be there in five

 

**Minhyuk**

:T

 

“Well, well, well,” Kihyun taps his fingers rhythmically as he gazes up at Hyungwon who pulls out the tall chair across from him. “Look who’s late.”

Hyungwon flashes his middle finger at him, slipping his bookbag off his shoulder to drop it in the chair he’s just pulled out.

Kihyun starts to grin but then he reads the annoyance in Hyungwon’s grey eyes and the slight downward tilt of his mouth. “What’s wrong?” he asks, sitting up.

Waving a hand, Hyungwon shakes his head. “Ran into my ex and the side salad he was tossing behind my back. It’s nothing.”

Every thought in Kihyun’s mind goes quiet but the space between his ears is still so loud he almost misses Hyungwon suggesting they grab food.

He said ‘he’.

That’s, like, the pronoun for dudes. Which Hyungwon also is.

“Wait,” he hears himself say, “you’re _gay_?”

Hyungwon pauses mid-turn.

Kihyun cringes at his tone but there’s nothing he can do when Hyungwon opens his mouth.

“Can we talk about this later? I really want french toast sticks and I want to get some before all the syrup is gone.”

Blinking slowly, Kihyun gapes at Hyungwon who walks off as if this discovery doesn’t change everything.

Not only is Hyungwon attracted to men but he’s also currently single. If Kihyun’s hopes and dreams weren’t completely destroyed by the universe all the time, he would think he has a chance.

Sliding out of his chair, Kihyun mentally replays Friday night. He looks for missed signals, and signs that would have clued him in if he wasn’t so fucking stupid. The obscene lollipop eating comes to mind and, yeah, Kihyun was bothered by it, but he just assumed he was overthinking it because he is kind of infatuated and going through a four month dry spell.

Picking up a plate, Kihyun dumps a spoon of scrambled eggs on the side. He usually skips breakfast so he doesn’t know what’s being served this early in the morning. There’s only one kid standing by the station that typically is where the burgers are fried but is apparently used for pancakes and waffles during breakfast time.

The worker behind the grill nods his head at him when he approaches. “Morning.”

“Good morning,” Kihyun returns before he orders two waffles.

As he waits, wishing he didn’t leave his phone back at the table, he spies Hyungwon walking across the dining hall with a pyramid of french toast sticks in one hand and a small, white mug in the other. The younger boy doesn’t notice he’s being watched and Kihyun’s eyes follow him until he disappears around the corner that hides their table from view.

His inner voice telling him to go for it is distractingly loud.

He hands over his plate when his waffles finish baking and mumbles out a thank you. He picks up utensils and drizzles a bit of strawberry sauce on them before returning to the table where Hyungwon is shoving a dripping french toast stick into his mouth.

“Enough syrup for you?”

Hyungwon looks up as he catches a bit of syrup at the corner of his mouth and sucks it off his finger. “Mhm.”

Kihyun sprinkles pepper onto his eggs and mixes them. “So...” He shovels egg onto his fork and lifts it before hesitating and dropping them back onto the plate. He pokes at his waffles. “Gay?”

Hyungwon chuckles. “Hella.”

“It’s 2018. No one says ‘hella’ anymore.”

“I do and you can kiss my ass if you have a problem with that,” Hyungwon says, spearing another french toast stick.

Kihyun bites his tongue so he doesn’t say something pathetically desperate like ‘by all means, sit on my face’. Instead he shoves eggs into his mouth and mumbles, “Well, that’s cool.”

Hyungwon snorts over a mouthful of french toast. “What? That big reaction just to call me out for saying hella and end with ‘well, that’s cool’?"

"Shut up and eat. You talk too much," Kihyun hisses, hiding his embarrassment behind annoyance.

For a moment, Hyungwon acquiesces, working through his pyramid of french toast sticks without another comment about Kihyun's weird reaction to the reveal about his sexuality. Instead, he starts ranting about the car alarm that went off down the street from his dorm at one in the morning last night and how the owner didn’t turn it off for thirty minutes.

“I came,” he sets down his fork to pinch his fingers together, “ _this_ close to going to jail for murder.”

“Not close enough if you’re sitting here telling me about it,” Kihyun jokes as he pushes his eggs around his plate and through strawberry syrup.

He really isn’t a breakfast person.

Hyungwon narrows his gorgeous eyes at him, leaning back in his chair and crossing his arms over his chest. “Were you going to bail me out if I went?”

Mimicking the pose, Kihyun raises an eyebrow as he mind races a full triathlon about how attractive the film student looks like that. “I’ve only known you for one day and I don’t even like you,” he says. “So, no.”

Snorting, Hyungwon rolls his eyes. “You’re a horrible liar.”

If Kihyun didn’t know Hyungwon was playing around, he’d think the other man has caught on to his very small (read: exponentially growing) crush. “You don’t know me well enough to say that.”

“Minhyuk, you actually showed up to breakfast when I demanded you to out of the blue.” Hyungwon shrugs. “Pretty interesting for a guy who claims he doesn’t like me.”

Kihyun stares at Hyungwon, trying to think of a decent response. It’s kind of hard to do when his brain is filled with nothing but bright neon LED signs that read ‘AVAILABLE’.

He’s not good at focusing on more than one thing.

Uncurling his arms, he huffs out a sigh. “Okay. But just because I think you’re cool to hang with,” and charming, funny, the most beautiful man I’ve ever seen in my short, unfulfilled life-, “that doesn’t mean I like you.”

Hyungwon gives him a wide grin and a very sarcastic _mmhm_ as he sits up and takes his fork in hand again.

“Don’t ‘mmhm’ me,” Kihyun scolds, kicking him under the table.

Spearing a french toast stick into his mouth, Hyungwon chuckles. “Mmhm.”

♥

**Hyungwon**

did you hear about the meteor shower

 

**Minhyuk**

did you forget that i’m a space nerd or whatever

 

**Hyungwon**

shut the fuck up

have you ever seen one?

 

**Minhyuk**

again

i’m a space nerd

 

**Hyungwon**

you want me to hit you, don’t you?

 

**Minhyuk**

I’m just saying...

there are such things as dumb questions

 

**Hyungwon**

you’re a piece of shit

and i don’t like you

 

**Minhyuk**

likewise

i guess we don’t need to keep talking then

 

**Hyungwon**

stopppppppp you little fuck

i just want to know if we can see it from campus

 

**Minhyuk**

you might catch the brightest ones

even in this small city there’s a lotta light pollution

but

maybe

if you wanted to see it

idk

 

**Hyungwon**

spit it out already

 

**Minhyuk**

i know a nice place you could watch it from

it’s kinda far cuz we have to get away from the city

but yeah

we could rent a car and go

 

**Hyungwon**

that sounds like a lot of work

you wouldn’t mind?

 

**Minhyuk**

no of course not

wouldn’t have offered if i did

 

**Hyungwon**

i don’t know if you’re a pushover

or if you’re just really cool

 

**Minhyuk**

the second

 

**Hyungwon**

leaning towards the first

anyway

good night minhyukkie

 

**Minhyuk**

you can’t insult me and then run away with a cute name

 

**Hyungwon**

okay then

good night pushover

 

**Minhyuk**

:T

good night

 

“Why do you look like you’re going off to war?” Kihyun snorts as Hyungwon joins him outside of the student union.

“Shut up!” Hyungwon scowls, adjusting the hefty duffle bag hanging off his shoulder.

It looks like he’s packed a four person tent and a week’s worth of rations, the bag looking like it’s about to burst at the seams and hardly fitting under his arm. If Kihyun blows air at him, he bets Hyungwon will tip straight over.

“I didn’t know what to bring,” Hyungwon says. He wobbles as he walks to their rental car and Kihyun snickers.

“So you packed for the apocalypse?” Unlocking the car, he watches Hyungwon slide the bag off his shoulder and shove it in the backseat. “What the fuck do you think we’re about to do?”

“I don’t know about you but I’m about to shove my foot up your ass if you don’t shut _up._ ” Hyungwon slams the back door shut. He exhales deeply, pushing his hair back off his forehead as if he just worked up a sweat doing intensive labor.

Kihyun wants to laugh at his dramatics, but the simple action is so effortlessly attractive that his tongue ties in knots and he can only manage an awkward chuckle. And then, because he’s the biggest idiot to walk the earth, he offhandedly comments, “That’s kinky,” in a dumb ass attempt of a joke.

Hyungwon raises an eyebrow at him and for the first time since realizing he’d never amount to anything in life, Kihyun has a dream. A dream to spontaneously combust outside the student union at 01:20AM in front of his crush and the few students walking by in a grand display of sparks and fire and burning flesh. He could be the opening act to the meteor shower. His mother would be proud. That’s a much better life achievement than clown school.

Snorting, Hyungwon rounds the car and pulls open the passenger door. “I knew you were a freak ever since you tried to defend that shitty film at the festival.” He shakes his head with a tsk before sliding into the seat and leaving Kihyun to stare at the space he just occupied.

Hyungwon doesn’t give him time to linger, popping open the driver’s side door from the inside and almost hitting him with it.

“Get in, loser. I don’t wanna miss anything.”

“Is that any way to talk to your gracious driver?” Kihyun scolds as he plucks his gum — tonight it’s citrus splash! — out of his pocket and fishes out two short, orange sticks.

He pops the gum into his mouth as he enters the car.

Still leaning against the center console, Hyungwon laughs. “If you were an uber, I’d give you zero stars.”

Pushing the other boy away by his forehead, Kihyun holds out his pack of gum. “Want a piece?”

Minhyuk would scream if he found out Kihyun offered someone a piece of gum. To anyone who knows about Kihyun’s addiction, it’s a sign hell is finally freezing over. Kihyun doesn’t share with _anyone_ (except his mom because even though he doesn’t live with his parents anymore she still pulls the _I was in labor for ten thousand years and anything you own is mine, you little parasite_ card).

Hyungwon shakes his head and pulls out a wrapped lollipop from the front pocket of his black university hoodie. “I’m good.” He shows Kihyun the candy but doesn’t open it.

With a shrug, Kihyun drops the pack in the empty cup holder. He’s not upset that Hyungwon turned down his very special offer, but he is terrified of having to once again witness the gross (vulgar, inspirational, enlightening) way Hyungwon sucks on lollipops. His fingers tremble as he starts the car. In the distance, he hears Gay Jesus and Gay Buddha laughing at his misery over tea and scones.

♥

Kihyun takes them away from campus, away from the city lights, on a forty-five minute drive to an open park close to a small, quiet neighborhood. There are people there, presumably to watch the meteor shower too, but it’s not as crowded as Kihyun expected it to be.

The first time he noticed the park was on the bus during one of the many rides to the observatory another thirty minutes out for class. He’s been a couple times with friends and sometimes alone. It kind of feels like his special place but it feels weird to think about saying that to Hyungwon.

After they park the car and find a good spot away from any trees, Hyungwon drops his duffle bag with a tired groan.

“Did you have to pick a spot so damn far away from the car?” he complains as he drops to his knees and unzips the bag.

Kihyun snorts. “Literally no one asked you to bring whatever all that is.”

Hyungwon glares up at him. “Excuse me for wanting to be comfortable.”

From the bag, he pulls out a thin blanket and he rolls it out over the grass. Next, he takes out bug spray and tosses that onto the blanket. Then, a bag of cheddar and sour cream chips. And three chocolate bars. And a handful of lollipops. And a liter of water.

And a pack of gum.

“You can’t have any of this because you’ve done nothing but disrespect me and my duffle,” Hyungwon says, crawling onto the blanket. He folds his legs in front of himself and crosses his arms over his chest, staring Kihyun down with narrowed eyes.

He’s so cute.

Kihyun isn’t in love but he’s kind of in love.

“Fine with me.” Kihyun shrugs and plops down on the grass beside Hyungwon’s blanket, leaning back on his palms.

The shower has already started — he’s already seen a few streams of light — but he’s not how sure how well they’ll be able to watch it. There’s a bit of cloud cover but that isn’t the problem. It’s late, a little after two in the morning, and they can’t stay for too long unless Hyungwon is okay with sleeping outside if Kihyun is too tired to drive them back to campus.

The shower's radiant is on the fringe of their view in the direction they’re facing but Kihyun doesn’t bother with making them shift. It doesn’t matter. Not when there’s another flash of beautiful space dust and Hyungwon gasps next to him.

“Oh my god,” he exhales, talking more to himself than Kihyun. “I’ve never seen one of these before.” He sounds like a city kid who has never seen the stars before, like he’s stepped into a magical world he thought only existed in books or film.

He reminds Kihyun of when he first fell in love with the night sky.

“Yeah, it’s amazing.”

If only they could stay for the climax, when there’s so many streaming past that your head spins.

Fingers latch onto the sleeve of his jacket and pull, dragging him down. “What are you doing? Get over here.” Hyungwon continues to tug him over while refusing to take his eyes off the sky.

Chuckling, Kihyun scoots over to settle in next to him. He doesn't point out that it hasn't even been ten minutes since Hyungwon told him he was banned. They sit shoulder to shoulder as they watch the shower. Kihyun ignores the way he begins to get antsy (because he can't tell if it's because he needs gum or because he wants to wrap his arm around Hyungwon's shoulder) and answers the film student's questions about meteors which turn into questions about actual stars which turn into questions about black holes and the supposed alternate dimensions within their depths.

"I think it'd be cool to get sucked into one," Hyungwon says quietly, as if talking any louder will break the magic of them stargazing.

"It would be." Looking on from the outside, maybe. Kihyun isn't sure how he feels about freefalling for who knows how long until dying at the singularity.

A few minutes later, Hyungwon shivers in his hoodie beside him and Kihyun glances at him worriedly. Without thinking, he moves closer and slides his arm around Hyungwon's waist for warmth. The younger man jolts in surprise but he doesn't say anything, nor does he make to move the arm slung around him. 

"Do you want to head back?" he asks, mentally patting himself on the back when his voice doesn't crack.

In the near complete darkness of the park, Kihyun's eyes have adjusted enough for him to pick out the features of Hyungwon's beautiful face. Hyungwon glances at him with eyes that are lidded with the day's exhaustion but still gentle. So soft and gentle that Kihyun can't do anything but fall victim to the wild butterflies let loose in his stomach. His heart beats like a drum line when Hyungwon leans into him, sharing his weight.

"Maybe a little later," mumbles Hyungwon.

Kihyun nods back. And that should be the end of it, should mark the return of their attention to the spectacle around them, but it's not and it doesn't. 

Hyungwon nibbles at his bottom lip as his eyes travel over Kihyun's face, searching for something Kihyun is too afraid to make guesses on. "You're warm for someone so small," he says in that same whisper.

Any other time Kihyun would roll his eyes, maybe toss a thinly veiled insult back or hit the modelesque boy, but in this moment, when Hyungwon's attention drops from his eyes to a spot lower on his face, he can't find the words. They're caught somewhere in his throat with the intense feelings he's been choking on since he met Hyungwon outside of the fine arts building.

He wonders if he'd ruin the moment if he suddenly goes into cardiac arrest.

Hyungwon takes his time leaning in and pressing feather pillow soft lips against Kihyun's own. For a boy so loud and obnoxious, Hyungwon's hand that curves around Kihyun's neck is surprisingly timid. The kiss is sweet, just like the lollipops he's always eating and the gum Kihyun can't stop chewing, and chaste. Hyungwon doesn't draw back too far when it's over, moving his head back enough that they can look into one another's eyes without the image distorting.

"So," he exhales, eyes still on Kihyun's mouth as if he wants to continue, "gay?"

Kihyun chuckles and dips back in. "Hella." 

♥

**Hyungwon**

busy tonight?

yeah didn’t think so

 

**Minhyuk**

…

 

**Hyungwon**

so

since you shared your space nerd knowledge with me

i was thinking

we could have a movie night

top 5 movies picked by brilliant film major

chae hyungwon

 

**Minhyuk**

#1 who

#2 are you asking me on a stay at home date

 

**Hyungwon**

1 fuck you

2 you wish

 

**Minhyuk**

did you forget you kissed me the other night

 

**Hyungwon**

whatever

 

**Minhyuk**

1 point for Yoo Kihyun

0 points for Chae Hyungwon

 

**Hyungwon**

um

i'm glad he's getting points but

who??

 

“Did you just eat four pieces of gum at once?”

Kihyun narrows his eyes. “What’s your point?”

Shrugging, Minhyuk waves his hands in a show of disinterest. “You usually never eat more than two unless you think the world is collapsing at your feet. So, what’s up?” He taps his chin and mutters under his breath about what he’s going to order.

Kihyun doesn’t know why because he orders the same thing every time: a medium iced taro boba with skim milk, extra sugar, and extra bubbles.

Kihyun chomps down on his gum noisily and crosses his arms over his chest. “What is this? An interrogation?”

Minhyuk stops considering bubble tea flavors he’ll never buy and turns to Kihyun with an interested, ‘oh?’ His mouth is wide open in a freeze frame of a huge grin and Kihyun hates how he can already hear the exuberant laughter that is surely coming.

“What’d you do?” Minhyuk asks the question like he can magically spawn popcorn for his front row seat to Kihyun’s dumb decisions.

“I didn’t do anything!” Kihyun returns quickly, defensive.

Their conversation is put on hold when the time comes to order their drinks — Kihyun decides to go for a raspberry lemonade — and Minhyuk is gracious enough to wait until they have their drinks and find seats along the window.

Kihyun fiddles with his straw as he watches a mixed group of students take up the entire sidewalk as they walk outside.

“So, what’s the deal?” Minhyuk asks, sucking in a mouthful of round tapioca through his fat neon orange straw.

Kihyun sighs and leans forward on his elbows. “I met this guy.”

“Oooh, this is already juicy. Tell big brother Minhyuk about your new crush.”

“Don’t ever call yourself that again,” Kihyun deadpans before launching into the awkward story of how he’s been using Minhyuk’s name while hanging out and flirting around with a cute boy after offering to go with him to the film festival using Minhyuk’s account.

“And I just accidentally used my name in a text to him and I don’t know how to explain myself.”

“I was wondering who you were texting when I’m your only friend.” Minhyuk takes a quick sip of his drink and smacks his lips. “Dude, just tell him the truth.”

“It’s not that easy,” Kihyun exclaims with an exasperated sigh. "We kissed!"

Minhyuk raises an eyebrow. “I mean, he might think you’re fucking weird and desperate, which is true, but it’s not that serious. If you don’t tell him soon, though, it might get serious. How long were you planning to pretend?”

Running his hands over his face, Kihyun groans. “I wasn’t actively deciding to not tell him. But how do you tell the guy you want to get with that you’ve been using your best friend’s name for the dumbest reason ever.”

“You say ‘hey, I’ve been using my best friend’s name for the dumbest reason ever’ and turn it into the joke that it is.”

“That’s the worst advice you’ve ever given me.”

Minhyuk chuckles. “Worst than that time I told you getting buzzed before your final would get rid of your test anxiety?”

Kihyun sucks at his lemonade sullenly. He narrowly avoided failing that final because he was too out of his mind to remember that drawing SpongeBob with the answer bubbles wasn’t an effective test taking strategy. “You’re a terrible person.”

And yet, he knows Minhyuk is right. He has to tell Hyungwon the truth and he has to do it soon.

No.

He has to do it tonight.

♥

“Transformers?” Kihyun asks, not bothering to hide his immense disgust as Hyungwon shows him the spread of five DVDs on his bed. “I’m walking out right now if you honestly believe this series is good.”

Hyungwon laughs as he picks up the very first movie and cracks open the case. “I never said anything about us watching good movies.” He plucks out the DVD and squeezes his little finger through the hole in the center. Tossing the case back onto his bed, he does a little drum roll on his leg with his free hand. “Welcome to a showing of the top five worst movies picked by brilliant film major, Chae Hyungwon.”

He ends with a small flourish, waving his hand and bowing like he’s royalty or something. His laugh when Kihyun pushes him mid-bow pumps helium into the astronomy student’s veins, leaving him feeling light and weightless.

Kihyun could listen to his childhood summer afternoon laugh forever, addicted to the way it makes the sun rise warm in his chest. He laughs as well, because it’s contagious. He’s been infected by Hyungwon and he doesn’t think he’ll find the cure, doesn’t think he even wants it.

Once he settles, Hyungwon places the DVD into the player on his laptop, the computer hooked up to his television. He scoops up the movie cases as the first screens of the DVD begin to play, placing them on the floor and out of the way.

He lives in a single room dorm, but somehow earned himself one of the bigger corner rooms. Even so, there’s still only his bed and the university provided desk chair to sit on. Hyungwon tells Kihyun to make himself comfortable as his microwave pings.

Kihyun watches him retrieve the popcorn, listening to the kernels still trying to pop open.

Pinching the bag, Hyungwon shakes it as he closes the door to his microwave and turns around. He blinks at Kihyun standing in the middle of his room, brows flattening.

“What are you doing? Sit down.” He nods at his bed as he walks around Kihyun. There’s a plastic storage container sitting atop his mini fridge and from it he takes out a deep, baby blue plastic bowl.

Curling a thread hanging from the sleeve of his sweater around his finger, Kihyun bites his lip. Hyungwon probably won’t ask…he probably doesn’t even remember, but Kihyun still owes him the truth and he’d rather get it over with in case the reveal ends up blowing up into some big deal.

“Actually, I have something to tell you,” he says, eyes following Hyungwon as he sits the bowl on his bed.

“And you can’t sit down first?” Hyungwon quickly glances at him as he rips open the bag of popcorn and tips it over into the bowl.

“I don’t know if you’ll get mad after I tell you.”

“Minhyuk, unless—”

“Yeah, actually, that’s just it. My name isn’t Minhyuk,” Kihyun comes right out and says it.

Hyungwon’s head snaps up and he fixes Kihyun with a confused frown and a raised eyebrow.

Nervously, Kihyun pulls at the loose thread on his sweater, snapping it. “It’s, um, Kihyun. Yoo Kihyun. If you remember our text from this afternoon.”

Hyungwon lifts the empty popcorn bag but doesn’t yet walk to his tiny trashcan to throw it away. “I don’t understand.” He tilts his head to the side and then quickly jerks it to shift his hair out of his face. “Why would you lie about your name?”

Playing with the snapped thread, Kihyun averts his gaze to his fidgeting fingers. He shrugs. “I saw your post about the film fest on my friend’s phone and I thought ‘hey, why not waste ten dollars to breathe the same air as an absolutely gorgeous stranger and potentially have a good time’.

“But I thought that’d be it. I’d go to the festival, we’d silently agree to never meet up again, and I’d come back home and drown my sorrows about how much of a loser I am for doing something like that with my roommate’s wine. So, I thought it didn’t matter if I didn’t clarify that I wasn’t Lee Minhyuk but his best friend…named Kihyun,” he explains.

He doesn’t look up after Hyungwon falls silent, twining his thread around his index finger and waiting for a reaction that he can’t predict.

“That’s…” Hyungwon fiddles with the bag in his hands. “Kind of romantic.”

“What?” Kihyun squawks, looking up at the taller boy. Despite Hyungwon’s words, he’s surprised to see the warmth in his brown — oh, he’s not wearing his contacts — eyes.

Crumpling the bag, Hyungwon goes to throw it away. “Isn’t it?” When he walks back the short distance, he sits on his bed next to the bowl of popcorn and offers Kihyun a candied laugh. “You basically fell in love with me at first sight and still tried to meet me even if you didn’t think it would go anywhere.”

“But I lied to you about who I am!” Kihyun exclaims before realizing what Hyungwon actually said. Love at first sight sounds accurate, but it also only serves to make Kihyun feel more stupid and pathetic.

“Did you lie to me about anything else other than your name?”

Kihyun is quick to shake his head. “No, but—”

“Okay, then there’s no problem. I mean, it’s fucking weird that you didn’t tell me the truth until now, but it’s really not that big of a deal.” Hyungwon reaches for Kihyun, wrapping his hands around his wrists and tugging him in between his legs.

Kihyun stares into his eyes, wondering if this is actually happening and his life is _actually_ going well for once.

Gay Jesus hasn’t completely abandoned him.

“There’s still one thing we need to get straightened out,” Kihyun says, pressing his lips together.

Hyungwon blinks. “What?”

“I may have told you about all this and called you beautiful, but I want you to remember that doesn’t mean I like you.”

Snorting, Hyungwon pinches the inside of Kihyun’s wrist. Releasing him, he balls a hand in Kihyun’s shirt and drags him down. “You’re a piece of shit and I don’t like you either,” he says and presses their lips together.

♥

“The first one wasn’t that bad, honestly,” comments Kihyun as he crawls over Hyungwon’s legs to place in the DVD for the third movie in the series. “It’s everything after it that’s a disaster.” After he presses play on the title screen, he returns to his spot in front of Hyungwon and his new boyfriend quickly replaces his arm around his waist when he lies down.

“You’re entitled to your wrong opinion.”

They finished the popcorn by the middle of the first movie and decided not to bother with another bag. Not even ten minutes into Revenge of the Fallen, Hyungwon tugged Kihyun down to cuddle, complaining that Kihyun is too short for him to rest his head on without ruining his back.

Kihyun rolls his eyes but doesn’t say anything else, knowing that once Hyungwon gets started, he doesn’t shut up. It’s not a bad thing, he quite likes listening to Hyungwon’s insight as someone who loves movies with his entire being, but he’d rather enjoy this shitty movie marathon without that right now.

Hyungwon chimes in with a snarky critique every once in a while but he too seems more content to watch quietly and play with Kihyun’s fingers.

“Does your friend know you tried to catfish me in real life using his name?” Hyungwon asks randomly about three fourths of the way into Dark of the Moon.

Kihyun’s confident he’s seen this movie before but he doesn’t remember it being this fucking long.

“He does.” He finally grabs Hyungwon’s hand and slots their fingers together. “But I only told him this morning after the text.”

Hyungwon snorts. “He didn’t even know this entire time? Damn, that’s kind of awkward. I guess it’s a good thing I never tried to send you a friend request.”

“I’m kind of surprised you didn’t figure it out. I know Minhyuk has selfies on facebook.”

“I don’t use it that often either. And I was too lazy to dig any further after the fifth dog picture in a row.”

Kihyun laughs. “Yeah, Minhyuk really loves his dog.”

Nosing the back of his neck, Hyungwon hums and like that, they fall into silence again.

More than paying attention to the loud, action-packed movie, Kihyun smiles stupidly at the television and melts under Hyungwon’s soft puffs of breath against his nape. After twenty years of disappointment, despite the kiss and everything, he had still convinced himself that their relationship would never become this. And maybe they won’t last but he’ll adore Hyungwon for as long as they do.

It’s hard to figure out how long he lies there looking like a huge dumbass when his reference for time is a movie that lasts as long as the ice age, but eventually he notices that Hyungwon hasn’t chimed in with his intermittent commentary in a while.

Frowning, Kihyun squeezes their clasped hands. “Hyungwon?” He calls his name again when there’s no response.

Wiggling in Hyungwon’s loose hold, he rolls onto his back and looks at his boyfriend.

Sleep softens the younger man, his lips parted ever so slightly and his face angled into his pillow. Kihyun smiles at him as his heart fills with something that could one day be love. With his free hand, he cups Hyungwon’s cheek and brushes his thumb over the smooth skin.

And then he pinches him. Hard.

Hyungwon yanks at their conjoined hands, trying to hit the hand assaulting his face. “Stop,” he whines.

“Wake the fuck up. You’re not leaving me awake to watch this shit.” Kihyun drags their hands back down and pinches harder.

Hyungwon doesn’t open his eyes as he threatens, “stop or I’m breaking up with you.”

“Not if I break up with you first!

“I never liked you anyway!”

“I don’t like you either!”

 

(And they lived happily ever after).

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry if it seemed kinda rushed :/// i may (as in don't hold me to that) be back with some smut but for now this is it <3

**Author's Note:**

> [twt](https://twitter.com/monstazet)|[blr](http://at-tostitos.tumblr.com)|[cc](https://curiouscat.me/tosties)


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